WHAT WE DISLIKED:

Introduction

As AMD’s 7000 series lineup has developed, we’ve seen the flagship 7900 and budget 7700 cards, and also the middle ground of the 7800 models. It’s here in the mainstream performance segment where we find something interesting developing. The Radeon 7870 has seen two iterations of sorts, with the original Pitcairn-based GPU products, then the Tahiti-based version. And now PowerColor is putting a familiar spin on the former, with the release of the Devil HD7870 custom graphics card.

It’s essentially a handcuffed version of the Radeon 7950, so the performance should be good against the competiton, but without the price tag of the premium 7950. It’s a bit of an interesting choice by PoweColor, targeting gamers with the newly branded card as AMD’s lineup matures, and before we see the next generation models hitting shelves presumably later this year.

We’ve previously seen two Devil-branded cards from PowerColor, the behemoth 7990 and a previous-gen 6970, both of which are (or were) flagship premium cards. But the Devil HD 7870 2GB is a mid-range card, coming with an attractive price tag of $260. It’s a bit unusual to see a custom cooler, improved power design, and attention to detail on such a modestly priced card, but we certainly approve of the move by PowerColor; better for consumers, we say.

Let’s take a closer look at the PowerColor Devil HD7870 2GB and see how it fares.